Trying to create a new voodoo-powered character for my world, need feed

Edited by Theslowking11 on May 22nd 2021 at 2:39:24 AM

Yeah, you are treading the fine edge of cultural misappropration here. You should do some research on genuine voudoun beliefs, preferably with a practitioner of some kind. For example, Baron Samedy isnt generally considered evil, nor would he wish humanity harm, at least in most versions.

Research is vital, and do be careful with cultural appropriation, that doesn't mean you can't spin it into something you own.

Obviously, dealing with dark forces comes with its own rule set. So if your character is working off a misunderstanding of Baron Samedi, that doesn't mean you couldn't have a wholly original 'Demon' (for lack of a better word), masquerading as a False Baron. Now then you got a couple ideas to think about from this point forward. A) How does the lack of understanding benefit the Dark Forces? B) How would the actual Baron Samedi react to having his name dragged through the mud? C) How would the superheroes deal with these chaotic forces? D) Just how big of an overall threat would these chaotic forces become over time?

Just to tress it, research is vital. Following every thread you can until your comfortable with the actual belief system, and use some of the other characters to point out the villain's lack of understanding in dealing with these forces.

It's worked very well when Atomic Robo battles Dr. Dinosaur.

Just to get you started, there was a lot of info on this thread, and nekomoon esp seemed to know what he was talking about.

Edited by Theslowking11 on May 22nd 2021 at 2:44:28 AM

Baron Samdei decides who lives and who dies.

You might spin that into immortality, but in his case it’s more like collecting the bill at a later date.

IMHO, it might be easiest to think of the Voudoun loa as not unlike the Greco-Roman gods—they aren't "good", nor are they "evil", they are in fact human personalities writ large. Their desires, plans, thoughts, actions and mistakes are all "more than human." As such, the best way for an antagonist to acquire power is by making a deal with one of them, even Baron Samedy, for one stated purpose, but who then goes on to use that power for their own personal gain. So long as they are careful not to interfere with the loa's interests and worship they should be able to get away with it. However, nothing prevents some other group of practitioners from appealing to that exact same loa for the power to defeat the first one. That could make for some interesting narrative tension.

Edited by Theslowking11 on May 22nd 2021 at 2:44:13 AM

Offering the symbolic representation of death lives or souls is pointless, because he collects them all already. What he wants is worship, and rituals carried out in his name.

Why voodoo? Why Baron Samedi?

Just spinning ideas here, but what about killing bad guys. Like, if our main villain gets power but has to collect evil people souls to perpetuate the deal, leading to ever more flimsy excuses and rule lawyering to try and get more out of the deal.

See my comment above about the Loa not really being about good vs. evil.

You could tell that story without dragging voodoo and Baron Samedi into it. So why use these things instead of demons? What's your motivation for using these ideas in the ways you intend?

Edited by nekomoon14 on Oct 8th 2019 at 12:19:48 PM